Steve Reich: world premiere of In All Your Ways in Edinburgh
The first performance of Steve Reich’s new large ensemble work, In All Your Ways, is presented by the Colin Currie Group at the Edinburgh International Festival on 28 August. Further performances honouring the composer’s 90th birthday on 3 October see the new score travelling across the coming season to Amsterdam, Toronto, New York, Berkeley, London, Paris, Hamburg and Los Angeles.
A highlight of Steve Reich's 90th birthday celebrations this year is the series of performances of his latest ensemble work In All Your Ways, launched with its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival on 28 August. The all-Reich programme by the Colin Currie Group at the Usher Hall also features the world premiere of the short keyboard duo Two Pianos, as well as Radio Rewrite, Double Sextet and Quartet. The same programme is presented in Amsterdam on 19 September by the NTR ZaterdagMatinee series at the Concertgebouw, including the Dutch premiere of In All Your Ways.
Reich’s birthday month of October brings the new work’s first North American performances by Soundstreams in Toronto (6 October) and by Ensemble Signal together with the Bang on a Can All-Stars at Carnegie Hall in New York (22 October) and within the CalPerformances series in Berkeley (24 October). The score then crosses back across the Atlantic for further performances by the Colin Currie Group at the Barbican in London (28 October), the Philharmonie de Paris (15 November) and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (4 December). The Los Angeles Philharmonic presents a performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall (7 March), with further appearances for the work planned in Europe and Asia in Spring and Summer next year.
In All Your Ways is scored for the classic Reich large ensemble line-up of double flutes and clarinets, mallet percussion, piano duo, and string quartet, with a duration of 18 minutes. The work was commissioned by Barbican Centre, Avex Classics International Inc, Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Edinburgh International Festival, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Grafenegg Festival, Helsinki Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, NTR ZaterdagMatinee, and Soundstreams.
In All Your Ways joins the selection of Reich works inspired by Biblical texts, while in this case being purely instrumental. As the composer explains: “Just before In All Your Ways, I wrote two pieces that set religious texts for voices and ensemble. I relied on the texts for both their syllabic structure and their meaning. For this new piece, I wanted a similar text — even if there were no singers. “In all your ways” is the opening of Proverbs 3:6, and a four-note instrumental ‘setting’ of those words can be heard, now and then, throughout the work.”
“The piece is divided into four rhythmic sections: sixteenths, eighths, quarters, and triplets. These sections are repeated, more or less in that order, throughout. There are four harmonic sections: three sharps, two flats, five flats, and all naturals. Each signature may be major, minor, or modal. These harmonic sections are similarly repeated. However, the combination of rhythmic values and key signatures sometimes varies from section to section.”
Performances of In All Your Ways are embedded within an exciting sequence of 90th birthday celebrations for Steve Reich around the world. In the UK the Southbank Centre opens its 2026/27 season with concerts including Different Trains in a version for string orchestra, Triple Quartet, a London Sinfonietta programme featuring City Life and Radio Rewrite, and Music for 18 Musicians performed by the Para Orchestra (26-27 Sep). The Schwarzman Centre in Oxford presents Steve Reich in Focus featuring Different Trains and Triple Quartet and a spatial audio installation designed by Loss><Gain employing classic Reich recordings (25-30 Sep). Colin Currie leads a major three-day retrospective with eight concerts of Reich’s music at the Glasshouse in Gateshead, taking us up to the birthday on 3 October, including The Desert Music, Radio Rewrite, Three Movements and Music for 18 Musicians (2-4 Oct). The Barbican in London is host to multiple Reich concerts, including recitals by the Colin Currie Group, an all-Reich program with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Susanna Mälkki (also touring to Paris as part of the Philharmonie’s Reich celebrations), and an intergenerational performance of Music for 18 Musicians with students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (28 Oct – 5 Dec).
Institutions and ensembles in Reich’s home city of New York have joined forces to celebrate the composer’s 90th throughout the autumn. The composer is an alumnus of Juilliard which kicks off US events with a 90th concert (22 Sep), while Park Avenue Armory marks the 50th anniversary of Music for 18 Musicians with an expanded, immersive production featuring three generations of performers – the original Steve Reich Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, and musicians from the Manhattan School of Music (14-18 Oct). Carnegie Hall presents a birthday concert featuring longtime Reich collaborators Bang on a Can and Ensemble Signal alongside Nico Muhly, Lisa Kaplan, and Bryce Dessner in works spanning five decades, including the US premieres of In All Your Ways and Two Pianos (22 Oct). The birthday year is rounded off by the New York Philharmonic in a ‘Sound On’ presentation of Tehillim, featuring Synergy Vocals and conductor David Robertson (8 Dec).
To mark the 90th in October, Deutsche Grammophon reissues Drumming recorded by Steve Reich and Musicians as part of its acclaimed Original Source Series, newly mastered from the original four-track tapes.
> Further information on Work: In All Your Ways
Photo: Jennifer Taylor